Although state governments and public health departments throughout the country are making serious efforts to combat America’s unprecedented measles outbreaks, the refusal of some citizens to get vaccinated have made this an uphill battle.
After all, one of the hardest things in the world to fight is an idea and that holds true regardless of whether that idea is based on credible information or not. And no matter how many times health experts debunk the myths surrounding the risks of vaccines, the idea that they’re dangerous remains as stubborn and pernicious as ever.
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Yet, it isn’t just the ignorant and misinformed who are facing consequences in this public health crisis. As one Kentucky family learned, those who oppose certain vaccines for other reasons are also running afoul of public policy.
Until mid-March, 18-year-old Jerome Kunkel attended school at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Assumption Academy in Walton, Kentucky.
As NBC News reported , Kunkel was also on the private Catholic school’s basketball team.
However, both of these activities had to be put on hold after the school experienced a chickenpox outbreak with 32 reported cases.
According to the Northern Kentucky Public Health Department, those who didn’t receive a chickenpox vaccination had to stay away for three weeks after the onset of a chickenpox rash on the last student or teacher affected.
As Kunkel and his family refused to get this vaccine, he was barred from the academy.
Their reason for refusing this didn’t have to do with aversion to vaccines, but rather religious objection to the chickenpox vaccine in particular.
This had to do with the fact as outlined by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia that chickenpox vaccines first developed in the 1960s were derived from tissue from two aborted fetuses.
No further fetal tissue has been sourced since then, but the association is enough for some Catholics to refuse the vaccine.
Kunkel had attempted a lawsuit to challenge this ban through his family’s attorney, Christopher Wiest.
However, as WLWT reported , the suit was defeated in court and Kunkel remains unable to attend Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.
In the weeks since this ban came into effect, Kunkel has also contracted the chickenpox.
But according to NBC News , this fact hasn’t changed anyone in the Kunkel’s family’s mind about the decision to refuse the vaccine.
As Wiest said, “These are deeply held religious beliefs, they’re sincerely held beliefs. From their perspective, they always recognized they were running the risk of getting it, and they were OK with it.”
However, health officials have accused Wiest in particular of downplaying the dangers of chickenpox.
As Laura Brinson from the health department said, “Encouraging the spread of an acute infection disease in a community demonstrates a callous disregard for the health and safety of friends, family, neighbors and unsuspecting members of the general public.”
Indeed, just because some people, including Kentucky’s own governor, held chickenpox parties, that doesn’t mean they were necessarily a good idea. It especially doesn’t mean it’s OK to spread them to people who can’t afford to contract them.
There’s also the issue that those who have experienced chickenpox can later experience shingles.
The Centers For Disease Control said this can happen regardless of someone’s age, but the likelihood increases as they get older.
Shingles takes the form of a painful rash, but that can sometimes develop into postherpetic neuralgia, in which the pain not only continues in the area where the rash once was, but increases. This pain can potentially interfere with daily life and last for years.
That being said, the fact that Kunkel has contracted chickenpox now means he is immune to it.
As NBC News reported, this suggests that once Kunkel can demonstrate that his related lesions have scabbed over, he will be allowed to return to school.
h/t: NBC News
